The UK’s largest peer-to-peer lending service Zopa, has today announced that Ronen Benchetrit will become the company’s new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in a strategic hire for the fintech business.
Ronen will be responsible for leading Zopa’s technology team and will be tasked with driving the overall technology strategy to support business growth. With more than two decades of software development and management experience in both startups and large companies, Ronen brings extensive knowledge and expertise to Zopa.
Most recently, Ronen served as CTO for leading online gaming operator PokerStars. In this role, Ronen was responsible for the provision of the areas of technology and for management of the company’s product roadmap, ensuring the quality, reliability and security of external and internal systems, networks and platforms.
Before joining PokerStars and for four years, Ronen led the development of AVAYA Telecommunications switches and Voice-Over-IP phones for the enterprise marketplace. Prior to that and for over six years, Ronen led the engineering in a software development boutique he co-founded specialising in the security and defence sectors. Prior to that, Ronen fulfilled key development managerial and directorship roles in Israeli start-up companies in various domains.
Ronen Benchetrit, Zopa CTO said, "I am delighted to join Zopa, a true pioneer and innovator in its field. I believe that Zopa is leading by example, with great innovative products and an award winning team. I hope to use my experience and skills to drive rapid growth for Zopa, making it accessible to an ever growing number of customers and leading Zopa as a fintech pioneer."
"We are hugely excited to welcome Ronen to Zopa as our new CTO. Ronen brings an impressive technology track record in driving business growth as well as technical and IT skills to Zopa”, said Jaidev Janardana, CEO of Zopa. His arrival is yet another major building block in our drive to continue and accelerate Zopa’s growth in changing the landscape of consumer financial products.”
Ronen is a graduate of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Computer Science Academy (Mamram) and served six years in an elite technology unit in the IDF in various engineering roles. Ronen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and is the lead inventor of several granted patents in various domains.